Voestalpine Stahl Donawitz steel plant, also known as Donawitz Steelworks, is a steel plant in Leoben, Styria, Austria that operates blast furnace (BF), direct reduced iron (DRI), electric arc furnace (EAF), and basic oxygen furnace (BOF) technology.
The Voestalpine Stahl Donawitz steel plant began operating in 1878, with the history of the plant tracing back to the first hammer mills in Leoben that were established in 1436. In 1878, the construction of the Donawitz-Vordernberg railway line nearby created demand for steel and the plant was erected, with more units and ovens being added on through the years.[1]
In 1991, the Donawitz site split into three separate companies; in 1995, voestalpine had its initial public offering and purchased the site.[1]
In 2007, voestalpine completed the addition of a debris water plant, and in 2008, a captive power plant began operating onsite to power the plant's operations.[1]
In 2017, voestalpine announced it would be investing $114m in various equipment at the Donawitz plant yet no updates on these investments were publicly available.[2]
The plant is known for its low number of onsite employees; in 2017 several articles were published regarding how the plant only needed 14 people to make 500,000 tons of robust steel wire a year.[3][4]
The plant is listed as "Sinteranl., Hochöfen, Stahlwerk Donawitz" in a Sandbag report (link unknown), meaning "Sinter plant, blast furnaces, steelworks Donawitz," meaning it could have a sinter plant as well.
Transition
In March 2023 the company approved a EUR 1.5 billion investment to transition the plant away from BF-BOF production by building an EAF with 850ttpa steelmaking capacity. The EAF, along with another at the company's Linz plant, is expected to be commissioned in 2027. The company also announced that it will be decommissioning two blast furnaces, one each at the two plants in this expansion cycle and two more by 2030.[5]
Low-emissions/green steelmaking
This steel plant is associated with a green steel project tracked in the Green Steel Tracker. Details about the project are included below.
To access additional data, including an interactive map of steel power plants, a downloadable dataset, and summary data, please visit the Global Iron and Steel Tracker on the Global Energy Monitor website.